Coinciding with the London 2012 Olympics, London based performing arts company Just a Must, in partnership with the ACF London, is staging the English language premiere of Sports Play by Austrian Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek, translated by Penny Black and with Karen Jurs-Munby. This is a rare opportunity to see Jelinek’s work on stage as part of a UK-wide tour.

Sports Play (written in 1998) is a postdramatic text that explores the marketing and sale of the human body and of emotions in sport. Jelinek questions contemporary society's obsession with fitness and body image and rejects the romanticized notion of sport as portrayed in today’s media. She considers sport as a mass phenomenon and as a medium for chauvinism and fanaticism – sport as war. At the same time this is one of Jelinek’s most personal plays in which she styles herself as 'Elfie Electra' and mixes anger with self-irony.

11 July, Live@LICA (Nuffield Theatre), Lancaster, www.liveatlica.org

13 July, The Maltings Theatre & Cinema, Berwick-upon-Tweed, www.maltingsberwick.co.uk

16–21 July, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff www.chapter.org

23–24 July, Bike Shed Theatre, Exeter www.bikeshedtheatre.co.uk

30 July – 4 August, Chelsea Theatre, London, www.chelseatheatre.org.uk

For more information visit www.justamust.com

1 August, 17:30-19:00, Chelsea Theatre
Pre-show Talk: Dramaturgs’ Network’s DN Olympic Café: a pre-show conversation on ‘Sports Play’
for further infomration and to book tickets click here.